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Programmers, developers, and coders are different names for geeks who write code, for people who sit hours and hours on the computers and just write code. Good developers are passionate about coding. Good developers also like challenges and problem solving. Good developers build great applications. But good developers also have some bad habits. Some but not all may include arrogance, laziness, and impatience.

I’ve been a developer my whole life. Sometimes, I wonder, are developers lazy? Are you a developer? What do you think? Do you think you’re lazy? Have you found yourself trying to convince your boss not to make changes to the product? Do you wonder why? Is this because we are lazy?

Developers and laziness

When we think of a developer, a nerd sitting behind a computer comes to mind: a person who is out of shape, has no sense of humor or personality, and is lazy. This may actually be true. These are some of the traits of a good programmer.

Published on http://threevirtues.com/, according to Larry Wall, creator of the Perl programming language, there are three great virtues of a programmer: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris.

Laziness: The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it.
Impatience: The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to.
Hubris: The quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about.

“Good developers are lazy”

The other two traits of a good developer are passion and laziness. I remember when I was writing my first book in 2001 on ADO.NET and C#, I used to sit all night and then go to work next morning. We’re passionate. That also makes us lazy. That makes us lazy to do other physical activities. It’s not just me, even Swizec Teller thinks Programmers are fucking lazy.

Business need conquers it all

As a project owner and stakeholder, sometimes I find it amusing when developers try to convince me of a solution that is much simpler but not what I want as a business need. This is normal, however. I was a developer and I was the same. My focus was to build something that I liked, not what the business wanted. However, that is not what I recommend. As a good developer, the priority should be the business need, not personal preference. If a business wants to change, there should be a change. A software is just a business enabler. It is not the business.

So, be a good developer. Stop being lazy.